Legend of Zelda: Children of Destiny
by Phantom Sunstorm
Summary: Link grows and matures in a world that doesn't remember him as the hero of time, yet he remains the savior of the land, mentoring a new generation of boys who are and will become the children of destiny.


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LEGEND OF ZELDA  
Children of Destiny  
  
by Phantom Sunstorm  
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Chapter 1  
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Disclaimer: Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time and Legend of Zelda Majora's Mask are copyright of its respective owner and creative team. This fanfiction has been created without their permission or consent.  
  
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CREED OF THE KING   
  
  
  
Through the shadows of the night,  
a child's wail shatters the light.  
Desert and forest sons born to reign,  
Born to rule through love and pain.  
Water, Desert, Forest, Sand,  
Grueling servents to the land.  
Lives forged painful as were meant to be,  
Hyrule's Children of Destiny.  
  
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We should have known, the Angel of Death realized with dark bitterness, that the child would be male.   
  
The warrior Taayla had just been a fortress guard when Ganon took her. What his fancy was with the seemingly plain woman had puzzled the other desert-landers. Their dark lord, their man king, almost never engaged in intercourse, and when he did, he took his fancy to the Hylian women he met in the castle where he kept a constant with the King.   
  
The night he took Taayla an inhuman lust had been in his eyes, he seemed possessed, throwing aside his dinner bowl and stomping across the room. He ignored the stunned silence of the other women and approached Taayla. Taking her chin into his large bronzed hand, he lead her into his bedroom and ravished her body like an animal.   
  
Later, only a few hours later, Gannadorf emerged alone from the room, saddled his horse, and took off for the castle. He was not seen again for another few months.   
  
At first Taayla became sick, then her belly began to bulge. She was taken off her duties with the other handful of Gerudo women who were pregnant. Taayla retreated to the underground ward of the fortress with the others and waited out her labor like a queen. Gerudo women with child were revered, if not useless. They were fed and taken care for by the teenage Gerudo girls until their water broke and the oldest of the desert landers, the Angel of Death, the Crone Konme, came down from her temple, and helped the operation along.  
  
The others had thought that Taayla was with twins, maybe triplets by the way she swelled. The last month of pregnancy, she had been barely able to lift herself to her feet and was becoming increasingly tired. Her health was a concern of her care-takers, who were ready to welcome the first daughter of Ganondorf into their fold. But when the crone arrived, all hope vanished.  
  
Konme placed her hands on the withering warrior's belly and frowned. She only felt one form under the stretched skin. One body. One large male body. "It's going to be a boy." She informed sadly.  
  
Taayla screamed.   
  
  
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Ten-year-old Princess Zelda screamed.   
  
"Princess," the pale, emerald clad child dropped to his knees. "forgive the intrusion but I...I um..." He straightened and scratched the back of his neck, smiling a little. "...I don't know why I'm here, actually."  
  
"I-wasn't-spying-on-my-father." The Princess responded hastily. Blue eyes looked up at her in confusion. Zelda wet her lips. "I mean. Who are you? Are you from the forest? Where is your fairy?"  
  
The elf slowly lifted himself from the ground. "I don't have a fairy. I've never had a fairy. But I am from the forest." He patted the dirt from his short tunic. "My name is Link. I'm a hero."   
  
...hero?  
  
"A hero?" Zelda almost laughed at the egotistical introduction, but remembered her manners. She did take a step back, though. Her back hit the castle wall. "You can't be a hero, you're nothing more than a boy. How old are you? And how did you get through the castle guards?"  
  
...why did I say that?   
  
"I'm...ten?"  
  
Now she did smile, "You don't know how old you are? Not meaning to be rude, hero, but... can I ask... are you a bit slow?"  
  
"No. I'm ten." He affirmed, his face darkened to a scarlet red. He chewed on his lip. "I'm just a little confused here. I don't even remember how I got to this courtyard. Like my legs just...carried me here."  
  
He spoke in such a befuddled manner that her fear of him disappeared. Zelda knew the guards were incompetent, it wasn't that hard to imagine even such a razed boy getting through them. And he seemed so familiar. Familiar? No, lost. Lost.  
  
"Maybe your legs and your head should start communicating more clearly with each other in the future, hmm?" The youngster teased, using a phrase her father often used on her mother in regard to her head, her royal credit card, and her sizely shopping binges. "So, you're a hero...?"  
  
"...I think so..."  
  
"You think so? That's not very assured. Can you prove it?" Zelda's voice became more cunning and amused with each question.   
  
Link looked like he had regretted coming here. Even if it was the decision of his feet and his head had no say in it. "...I can."   
  
Zelda giggled. "Okay, then hero Link. You're going to prove it. I'll send you out on a quest!"   
  
"A quest?" His heart fluttered, envisioning mountains and waterfalls, monsters and dark men on horsebacks that his mind knew it had never seen before. His hand brushed the hilt of the Kokiri sword in something that felt like nostalgia.   
  
"A quest!" The Princess confirmed, raising a finger into the air gleefully. To Link, she seemed suddenly sinister. As she took a step forward, he took a step back. "I'm going to write you a letter and you'll take it to the--"  
  
"Mountains?" He asked, then blushed.   
  
"...the ranch." She frowned. Mountains. This boy really was out there. "You will bring it to my friend Malon and escort her to the brook that runs from the outer castle walls, along towards the Zora domain, at the foot of the village. Are you following?" He nodded. "Okay, hero Link. You'll have to be quick...and covert. Malon's father doesn't like her sneaking off. Be at the meeting spot by dusk. This is a very important mission. Let me write the letter."  
  
A few minutes later, the fairy boy was handed a sealed envelope and shoved onto the flower bed. It walked numbly towards the gates, wondering what was going on.   
  
  
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"Hey! It's the fairy boy. Hey fairy boy." The red haired ranch daughter greeted when she saw him. Malon was walking towards the stables, brush in hand. Her white dress was bunched up under a pair of workmen overalls and mud caked one of her cheeks, a reminder never to ride Jasmine when she was bucking and in a bad mood. "What can I do you for, fairy boy?"  
  
She didn't give him a chance to answer. Malon disappeared inside the stables and didn't return.   
  
Link stared at the closed door, then hesitantly followed her in. He found Malon standing beside a brown mare, most of the horses in Lon Lon Ranch were brown, sanding its side.   
  
"Take a seat, fairy boy. I was hopin' to see you. I wanted to say thanks for waking up Dad. He's kinda of a bum. Funny to have a farm man be so lazy, huh? It really twists the crap right out of Ingo. I bet he'll quit one of these days. I don't like him much anyway. Hey, fairy boy! How about I hire you onto the ranch. We could always use another hand. What do you say?" Malon cheerfully held a one-sided conversation with herself.   
  
The girls in Kokiri Village certainly weren't demure, but Link wasn't used to dealing with another child as... worldly as Malon.   
  
When she told him to take a seat, he plopped down on an overturned water bucket and stared at her with wide eyes while she babbled. When she finished, all he could do was blink. Finally he reached into his tunic and took out the letter Zelda had given him.   
  
Malon snatched the parchment and examined what the Princess had written. She laughed out loud. "That sneak! Ha! She hauled you into being my escort, fairy boy? What a clever little Princess. Sheesh."   
  
"...I guess," Link replied uneasily. He rubbed the back of his head.  
  
"Lemme finish up my chores, then I'll sneak up stairs, grab us both some dinner and get my...supplies." Malon returned her attention to the horse, brushing more vigorously than ever. She paused and shook her head with a grin. "That Zelda... Geez."  
  
Link was once again confused.   
  
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Nabooru was confused to say the least.   
  
At fourteen, she was one of the girls assigned to tend to the pregnant Gerudo women, and she just couldn't understand why someone, especially someone like Taayla, would be carrying a male.   
  
Magic and myth dictated that no Gerudo male was born until the reign of the current male king had fallen, every hundred years they believed, for that was the average Gerudo lifetime. Their current leader, Ganon was neither old nor sickly. Was this some kind of prophecy? Was something about to happen to their king?  
  
"Push." One of the attendants growled. Four Gerudo warriors had to hold Taayla down, pushing her against the table. The crone, Konme, muttered and worked tirelessly at the bloody canal.   
  
"She's fading." Another attendant, the one holding Taayla down by the shoulders, cried. "Nabooru, more herbal water."   
  
Nabooru ran towards the kitchen. "If it is a male," she heard whispered, "do you know what this means? Ganon was the greatest king we've ever had. This child is a curse."   
  
"We all saw how he acted the night he took Taayla. He was not himself. He was bewitched. This is a bad omen. He's killing Taayla. When Ganondorf was born, Shinoba barely whimpered. It was immaculate."   
  
"This child is a demon."  
  
"Shut up!" Nabooru yelled, startling everyone in the room. The herbal mixture from the bucket she carried sloshed and spilled over the sides. The teenager glared. "How dare you say such things about Ganon's child? He isn't a demon, you old hags, and he's not a bad omen. He's a...a...a baby. A Gerudo baby. So show some respect, man-lovers."  
  
The women scoff at the last insult.   
  
Konme chuckled, "She has some spunk. Someone slap her." She reached her withered claws into Taayla and wrapped them around the baby's head. "Water. Now."   
  
The mother gave another scream and went still. Another cry filled the air, the Gerudo froze in amazement.   
  
It was a boy.   
  
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It was a boy.  
  
A cursed boy with bronze desert skin and dark hair.   
  
The Hylian mother, Laslia, trembled and crawled across the floor. She grabbed the last of the four buckets she had dug up when the labor began and tried to clean herself. She felt violated and disgusting. The boy, abandoned on the floor, wailed miserably.  
  
Laslia had only been sixteen when the forbearing Gerudo man had come to her and her father's inn. He had stood menacing and handsome at the door, requesting that someone help him tether his black horse. Laslia had shyly lead him to the barn, unheeding to the demonic glint in his eyes, and helped him tend to his beast.  
  
Ganon, he had called himself, had been heading towards the castle from the forest side of the kingdom when he had been attacked by one of the field's many night spirits. His horse had easily stomped over the beasts, but as it took to the stairs of the village, its left leg snagged and it had begun to limp. Together the two examined the wound, which turned out to be minor, and conversed politely.   
  
She had never seen a Gerudo male before, she didn't know that they were rare, and she was star struck. He made love to her at dawn, using a strength and passion she had never imagined, and left shortly after. He never even made it to his room. Laslia was in love.   
  
Then she found herself with child. The humiliation of being so young, unwed, and foolish enough to allow herself to be taken by a man she had just known for a few hours had shamed her into silence. As with many young mothers, she didn't grow very large and was able to hide her burden under layered dresses and aprons. She had the baby alone, in the hotel stables, withering and hissing, not knowing what to do.  
  
She felt so weak afterwards, but she had to get rid of the baby.   
  
Her father, the rest of the village, couldn't know of this dishonor.  
  
  
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Her father, the rest of the kingdom, couldn't know of her late night adventure.   
  
Zelda hide her 'supplies' in a leather satchel. The Princess was out of her normal royal attire, her dress lay wrinkled on her bed. She now wore a pair of blue breeches and a tattered white tunic. Her hair was wrapped in a cape, positioned so that some of it fell shaggily over one eye. She examined herself in the mirror and proudly realized she looked like a boy.  
  
Perfect.   
  
Zelda stuffed two pillows under the covers in the shape of her body and stashed the dress under the bed. She cracked open the window facing the garden court yard and crawled down to the grass. Zelda was, as her nursemaid Impa had taught her, absolutly silent.   
  
I could be a Shieken, Zelda thought smugly. She passed a few sleeping guards and made it to the gate. Tumbling down the dirt road that lead to the market and outer castle wall, Zelda reached the bridge before it closed and nearly cackled at her cleverness.   
  
Oh, she was sneaky.  
  
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Oh, she was sneaky.  
  
Malon had put her father to sleep early that evening, entertaining him with ale, saying "Father, would you like another drink? Perhaps another drink to soothe your woes, Father. You worked so hard today, running back from the castle like that, have a drink, Papa."   
  
Only Ingo was suspicious. But then again, Ingo was always suspicious.  
  
"What are you up to, girl?" He demanded.   
  
"I'm just trying to _comfort_ my beloved Papa, Ingo. Geez. What are you? The Royal Guards? Sheesh for crying out loud!" Malon replied innocently from where she stood, massaging Talon's shoulders.  
  
Ingo quirked an eyebrow. "No. I'm smarter than them. And I think you're up to something."  
  
"Mind your own business, Mustache Man, or I might just come down with a horrible headache tomorrow morning and not be able to do any of my chores. And you know what that means, Mustache, double work for you." She stuck her tongue out.   
  
"Humph!" Ingo said and lapsed into silence. He grabbed an ale mug for himself.   
  
Malon grinned and turned to wink at Link, who was watching from a window with a frown.   
  
The blonde gulped.   
  
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The blonde gulped and saddled up her father's horse, Star Dancer. The still pink infant cradled in her hand, she held him awkwardly, not used to taking hold of a child. I would be a bad mother, Laslia justified, lifting herself up to the mount. She nearly fainted in pain as her legs stretched.   
  
This was too much.   
  
The little boy began to cry again.   
  
"Shh. Shh. Mama's here. Mama's gonna make it all better, baby. Shh." Laslia pinched Star Dancer's sides and lead him out of the village, down the stairs.   
  
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Princess Zelda ran up the stairs, where none of the night monsters could attack her. She glared at them with her one pink eye and felt more smug than ever because they couldn't reach her.   
  
A cold breeze ran down from the village. Zelda sat down and drew her legs up to her chest, shivering. Where were Malon and Mr. Hero, anyway? She was a bit early, but they were about to be late.   
  
What if Link didn't do what he was suppose to? The thought struck her. What if he just crumpled up the paper and went home, wherever that was. The forest she supposed. What if he went there and was caught by Ingo or Talon. A mischievous boy trying to lure their precious Malon out into the wilderness. What if she got him into trouble?  
  
...why did she trust him without question?   
  
The sound of footsteps startled her and for a moment she thought she had been caught by Ganon, her father's new best friend and favorite lackey. Zelda hated the man, she didn't trust him one bit, but what could she, as a princess, do about that? The little girl turned and stared up at the descending horse. It wasn't Ganon.   
  
A pale, sweat drenched teenager passed by, bundle in hand. She smelled awful to Zelda, worse than a common folk normally smelt, like she had been bleeding heavily or had been... The bundle began to cry. "Oh! A baby."  
  
The woman froze. She hadn't spotted the white shrouded child on the steps.   
  
"Hello, wh-who are you?" She asked frightenly.  
  
It was Zelda's turn to freeze. She blinked one visible eye at the women. "I'm uh... I'm..." her voice dropped suddenly, "I'm a Shiekennn -- I'm Sheik."   
  
The teenager frowned. She didn't try to conform her baby. "You're not from the village..."  
  
"No! No. No." Zelda's deep tenor affirmed in a nervous stutter. Her gaze darted back and forth in thought. "I'm Shiek...you see...I'm a Shieken. And... I'm the second last of my kind. But uh... you shouldn't know that. So...don't tell anyone. I'm uh... here...from...uh... Shieken Land...visiting...my...my...my...MY AUNT Impa...and I just wanted to uh... see this nice village she helped build. Yeah. Who're you?"  
  
Hearing that this Shieken boy was not a local put Laslia at ease. "Okay... well, good luck Shiek. Nice meeting you." She pushed her horse down another few steps.  
  
"Right. I'll uh... be sure to tell my Aunt Impa you said hi."   
  
"NO! No...don't do that... Don't do that."   
  
Zelda frowned, "Yeah. Maybe I won't. Aunt Impa shouldn't know I'm out here without uh... my Shieken Mother... Shiekana. So I won't say I met you. And... you won't say you met me."   
  
...Impa's gonna kill me...  
  
Laslia smiled tiredly. "Okay. Good. Thanks, Shiek." She trotted off towards the forest. The baby continued to wail.  
  
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The baby wouldn't stop wailing.   
  
Taayla was dead. There was nothing the crone, Konme, could do for her. The others carried her body off solemnly, so that she wouldn't be viewed by the other pregnant women and made frightened. Though, little frightened a Gerudo. It was still disturbing.  
  
The baby lay in Naaboru's arms, trembling and hungry. They had called in another warrior who had been recent in child and could wet nurse him, but she hadn't arrived yet. The air was dark, no one wanted to talk. But finally, Naaja, the Fold's second-in-command, did.   
  
"...Lord Ganon will not accept this male. We," she said, eyes making contact with Nabooru, "may not view him as a bad omen...a premise to our lord's demise, but he will. Lord Ganon was never rational, he will fear the child."  
  
Nabooru chewed on her lip and drew the baby closer against her breast.   
  
"I can take him off to the desert." Konme suggested. "I raised Ganon after his mother died, its traditional for my line to take care of the baby king. It's only wise." The double-edged tone in her voice was not missed among the older women, who knew what Konme and her sister did to Ganon to make him as neurotic and ruthless as he was now.  
  
And they had only started handing down the child king to the witches two generations ago, when they had finally admitted to the problem of having their Gerudo males coddled by the women and made weak and feminine from over-indulgence.  
  
But Ganon, as useful and strong king as he was, was insane. And everyone knew it.   
  
Another warrior, Naaja's lover, shook her head. "This child could not be hidden in your fortress, old woman. Lord Ganon still calls you and your sister 'mama', he visits too often. He would find the child."   
  
Konme scowled.  
  
The door leading towards the outside burst open. A young messenger tumbled in, short of breath. "L-lord Ganon, he-he's coming to see Taayla's child."   
  
So, the king who had been gone for nearly nine months had returned.   
  
Nabooru sat up, clinging the baby.  
  
"What do we do?"  
  
"Show it to our Lord, let him kill it."  
  
"Get rid of it. Suffocate it. Drown it. Destroy the omen."  
  
"Stop this." Naaja barked, she stood up and took a stance beside Nabooru. "Bad omen or not, this is our future king. If fate wants there to be a new male in the Gerudo line, then let fate run its course. We all believe in the Creed of the King, it is our job to protect him until he can protect himself."  
  
"...then what do we do?" Nabooru asked hesitantly.  
  
Naaja turned to her. "We hide him."   
  
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"You want us to hide him?" The forest-dweller asked incredulously.   
  
It had taken almost an hour of begging, but Laslia had finally found a Kokiri child who would talk to her. He was a short, pig faced boy, whose mouth seemed to normally be turned into a smirk, but at the moment was down in a fear tinted frown.  
  
"Please, I beg you. I cannot take care of him. Please, take him. Raise him as your own. Make him your servant. Just take care of him. Please." Laslia was on her knees with the child out-reached before her, crying.   
  
A Kokiri female approached, face more open and less frightened than the boy. She peeked into the bundle. "We'll take him." She promised.  
  
"Saria!" The other boy growled.   
  
"I said, we'll take him, Mido. I'll take care of him, me and the twins. It'll be no problem. We took care of Link until he got bigger." The green haired girl smiled at Laslia and took her baby, cradling him in arms that knew how to hold and calm a baby.   
  
"...Saria." The boy, Mido, growled again.   
  
"Mido." She replied, batting her emerald eyes at him. "Do you think the Great Deku Tree would be happy with you if you turned him away? Don't be cruel. It'll be fine."   
  
"But-but Link..."  
  
"Link needed our help too. And we helped him and raised him, even if he doesn't remember us doing it, and he wasn't an intrusion, and he never caused problems, even when you picked on him all the time. And I know you feel sorry about it." She rocked the large infant until he stopped crying. "Link's been gone for a long time, maybe something did happen to him. Maybe the Goddesses gave him a new life and a new body, this body, and you were given a second chance to be a good person for once."   
  
The Hylians believed in reincarnation, and the forest child, with their limited grasp of death - beyond the life of a skull child - held the same notion. Though Saria was more worldly about it than any other forest-dweller.  
  
Mido was stumped.  
  
"We know how to make milk for a baby and how to take care of it." Saria promised. "Don't worry, your child is safe with us. I'll take him to the Deku Tree to be blessed right awhile. He'll grow up to be a Kokiri, maybe he'll even get a fairy."  
  
Mido snorted.  
  
Tears ran down Laslia's cheeks. "Thank you."   
  
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A sword reached the Stalchild's neck and took off its head. Malon turned and smirked. "Thank you."   
  
Link nodded, "No problem." He roared a war cry and went charging after the next night spirit that unearthed itself from the river bank.  
  
Malon giggled. Her fairy boy was certainly one for adventure. Maybe Zelda was right when she called him Mr. Hero in the letter. He certain was brash and foolhardy enough to be one.   
  
Satchel in hand, she crossed the bridge and headed towards the mouth of the village. Zelda, or a boy who could have been Zelda, was waiting for her there. "Malon!" The blonde child leapt to her...his? feet and ran ahead, waving. "What took you so long?"   
  
The ranch daughter put her hands on her hips. "What the heck are you wearing? You look like a boy." Zelda shrugged. Malon giggled. "I like it! Well... we would've been here earlier, but Ingo kept giving me the ol' suspicious eye, and then Papa passed out from the liquor and rolled over on me. Hey, Fairy Boy really is a hero, he rescued me from Papa's stomach. He's pretty strong for a guy in tights."  
  
Link came up to them, holding his sword up to his face, trying to pull an impaled skeletal hand from the tip. "What's wrong with tights?"  
  
"Nothing." Malon quickly replied, "they're very manly."  
  
Zelda grinned under her shawl. "Yeah. See, I'm wearing tights."  
  
"Yeah!"  
  
Link got the impression that he was being mocked. "Is my quest over?"  
  
"No," the Princess answered tiredly. She and Malon ran up the steps and squatted on the stone ground. They pulled out their satchels. "you have to bring Malon back to the ranch."   
  
Zelda and Malon pulled out a collection of parchment and began examining them closely. Link ascended the stairs, curious. The papers looked important. Could they be ancient Hylian prophecies? Maps leading to unknown treasures? Historical documents or warnings of current events?   
  
No, they were pictures of the famous Zora rock singer, Mikau.  
  
"He's sooooo dreamy." Malon sighed.   
  
Zelda pulled the scarf away from her mouth and nodded. "When I become Queen, I'm going to decree that he has to marry me."   
  
"No fair!" Malon cried, grabbing the pictures and held them against her heart. "You'll share, right? Hey. I thought your older brother was going to become King?"  
  
...Zelda has a brother?  
  
"I'll un-throne him... Just to get Mikau."  
  
"Who's Mikau?" Asked Link.  
  
The girls gave him a "are you dumb?" glare. Link blushed and took a step backwards, nearly tripping down the stairs. "Mikau's like the hottest Zora to live, like ever. Duh." Malon answered.   
  
"No one knows where he came from. Some say, the forest. But him and his band arrive every year for the castle's Festival of Time to perform. I hear Princess Ruto demands private concerts all the time. She's a Zora, so it must be easier to summon him. I'm so jealous." Zelda sighed.   
  
Malon made a defense for the Zora royality, "But Ruto's not completely selfish. She's always supplying us with new pictures and we always get our back stage passes for the concerts through her."  
  
"Malon, Ruto, and I are the founders of his official Hylian Fan club. Ruto's the president, which isn't fair. It was my idea, but she said, because she's a Zora, she should get the job. I didn't want to argue."   
  
So, the two more important female figures in the kingdom were friends with the ranches daughter - probably the most unimportant female in the kingdom, because they worshipped some rock star? Link studied the picture of Mikau. He was a tall Zora teenager, wielding a bone guitar and goofy, dazed smile in almost all of his pictures. There were a few 'sexy', serious ones. Link snorted, he didn't see what about this fish guy was so hot.  
  
"Fairy boy! Don't be jealous!" Malon laughed. "You're cute too. In a little kid way."  
  
"...I'm not a little kid." Came the sullen reply.   
  
Both girls laughed.   
  
"Stop right there!" A commanding voice barked. Something slithered up the stairs, to the amazement of... just Link. Zelda and Malon stared down, unimpressed. A young, stocky Zora girl made her way to the top, pictures in hands. "Did you start the meeting without me? Your president? How dare you!"  
  
Zelda rolled her eyes, "We didn't start the meeting. We were just explaining to Mr. Hero over there who Mikau was. Link, this is Princess Ruto. Princess Ruto, this is...my hero, Link."   
  
Princess Ruto crossed her flippers. "What idiot doesn't know about Mikau? He's my fiancée, you know. Or he will be after I give him the Zora Engagement stone. What do you mean hero?" She stepped forward and squinted at Link. "Hey, you're cute too."  
  
The dread in Link's stomach was more painful than it should have been. Like his gut understood the doom underlined in that statement. "...thanks, I think."  
  
"You, I will talk to later." Ruto promised. Link shivered. The Zora girl turned her attention back to her friends. "Sorry I'm late, girls, but something big's going on in the Kingdom. Daddy's second...no...third wife, Jarka, just gave birth to a son. Big-to-do. That's Daddy's third son, I don't know why I had to stick around and celebrate. It's not a big deal. It's not like he had a daughter, I'm his only daughter, you know."  
  
"We know, Ruto, we know." Malon dead-panned.   
  
"Well, so you also know, his name's Aquarius, and he's ten times cuter than any Hylian baby. Maybe I can show him to you during the next Hylian-Zora conference. Is that icky Ganon-dofus gonna be there?"   
  
Zelda shrugged. "Maybe... I don't want to think about that creep. Let's get down to business. Any new shots, Ru?"  
  
"...what am I suppose to do?" Link whined.  
  
Glare.  
  
"What until we're finished, then take Malon home." Zelda growled.   
  
Ruto wiggled her non-existent eyebrows. "He's really cute," she said with a grin. She had fangs. "He can take me home too."   
  
Doom, Link thought, doom.  
  
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Nabooru knew the baby was doomed, but wasn't about to give up on him.  
  
She had been the one who swore to sneak the child out of the fortress, away from Ganon, to safety. She knew that by doing it she was both a traitor and savior of the Gerudo king. She knew that if she was caught, it would be death to both of them.  
  
"Arrange a pyre," Naaja ordered, "say we've already burned the bodies. Quick now. Go Nabooru. Sneak along the gates and get into the water. It will be difficult with the child, but swim to the lake then head towards the village along the forest path. Go deep into the village, to the graveyard, there is a digger there, a male, he will help you."   
  
The Angel of Death squinted her old eyes and frowned her cone shaped mouth, trembling with anger for being ignored.   
  
Naaja kept an eye on the women. She turned the other guards and whispered. "Kill her, bury her in the quick sand. Do it quickly."   
  
They could already hear Ganon's voice rumbling through the stone walls.  
  
Nabooru snuck through one of the fortress' many secret exits. She almost smothered the child in her arms, she held him tight against her neck, trying to muffle his screams. Her feet hit the sand and open air, she stared at Ganon's large war horse, tied up next to the entrance. Heart racing, the fourteen-year-old raced towards the bridge.   
  
Even at her age, Nabooru was an expert ninja. Her stealth and grace was unmatched among the other warriors at her training level. As Naaja's sister she would take the place as second-in-command to Ganondorf when Naaja's age began to catch up with her. She was able to pass the bridge guards without being noticed, even with the baby in her arms, screwing up her grace.  
  
The night was unusually cold. A whisper held in the air. Nabooru shivered as she approached the cliff side, wondering how she could safely get down there without killing the baby.   
  
A coo in the distance startled her.   
  
A monstrously large owl stared at her in the darkness.   
  
And Nabooru understood.   
  
Faith unquestionable, she took a few pacing steps back and raced forward. The child was thrown into the air, screeching as it fell, then silent as it was caught by gentle talons. Nabooru stretched her body to cut neatly against the river below, feeling the wind slice pass her. The owl hovered and slowly dropped down, baby quiet and strangely peaceful in its grip.   
  
Maybe the birth was an omen.   
  
Nabooru slammed into the icy water and was sucked along the stream, towards the lake. The owl followed behind, cooing softly in the darkness. Mythical voice calming.   
  
  
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End Chapter 1  
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Phantom Sunstorm, sundialeve@mailcity.com 


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